EPBOT Readers discussion

This is the place for your final thoughts of The Left Handed Book Sellers of London. Spoilers are ok in this thread, so don't look here unless you've finished! I'll come back and try to post questions once I've finished myself.

I found a few reading questions to help spark discussion if anyone wishes to answer:

Read the prologue of The Left-Handed Booksellers of London and consider the following
questions: a) What tone did the prologue create? b) Were you hooked to continue reading the
story? c) How did the prologue help you understand the world in which the events of the story
take place?

Why do you think Garth Nix decided to open each chapter with a short poem?
Did these poems enhance your reading of the novel? If so, how? If not, why not?

Merlin St Jacques is equally comfortable in men’s and women’s clothes and has considered shape shifting to become a woman at some point in his past. Why do you think Garth Nix decided to make Merlin gender fluid? Did you enjoy the novel more for this decision? If so, why so? If not, why not? What other novels or films feature a gender fluid character?

How else has Garth Nix played with gender in the novel? [Hint: look closely at the TV show
references.]

My quick thoughts about it: It was a fairly fun fast read. I don't think it's anything ground breaking in the genre. A lot of the world building was a bit hand wavey. I didn't really feel like I understood what the booksellers really DID or the real difference between the left or the right or even handed, and the magic seemed to be just kind of all over the place. I also didn't really buy the chemistry between Merlin and Susan that much. it felt a bit "i'm telling you it's there" rather than showing. Not really like i OBJECT to the idea of them together, but it just kept saying they felt so drawn together, but it felt like it was just words on a page. I didn't FEEL like they were being drawn together. Also it kinda felt like it was set in the 80s mostly as an excuse for the fashion and to get cell phones out of the picture considering how much of it was spent trying to find a phone. But I enjoyed it enough, and it's a fast enough read i'd still read the next book.

I just finished this and I have similar thoughts, Sheri. It was a fun light read, a bit formulaic. Susan didn't feel like a fully fleshed-out character to me, for some reason - it didn't make sense to me that she would be so unruffled by the goings-on around her. I didn't get any sense of emotion from her at all.

I have to say, the poems bugged me. Not the idea of starting each chapter with a poem, that was ok, but the poems themselves. I'm a musician when I'm not being a teacher and parent, so when there's a poem that doesn't quiiiite fit its intended meter, the rhythm being off really irritates me. There were too many times where the syllables just didn't scan!

I had already read it earlier this year as part of my getting ready for my trip reading, so I didn’t go back and re-read it. I found it enjoyable for the fast pace, but I don’t think it is my favorite book of his ( pretty sure that was Froggkisser!) I did like that Left Handed magic and right handed magic were different, and I wondered about things like ambidextrous magicians when I started.
I wasn’t really bothered by Merlín and Susan as written… I suspect because I thought of it as a relationship like Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in Speed, a relationship based on the shared excitement and some physical attraction. I felt like a certain level of attraction was believable, and that since so much was fluid, like Vivían shifting from left to right handed magic, that they didn’t have to be in it for the long haul per se.
As for the 80’s setting, I took that as nostalgia more than anything , although it does get around cell phones and the internet, which would have been a different feeling story.

I realize I never commented on this, being reminded as I start listening to the 2nd book in this series, The Sinister Booksellers of Bath.

I listened to this on audiobook and it was okay for me. The poems at the beginning left me with a similar reaction as Shel. Hearing them recited to me and having things "off" was noticeable. Beyond that, the poems didn't do much for me in terms of "setting the tone" for the chapter because I long forgot them once the story started again.

I liked it enough to start listening to the second book. Mostly because I happen to have it available on audiobook, not because of a deep drive to read more.

The 1980s setting felt like nostalgia to me too. Perhaps I had higher hopes for this (similar to Ready Player One, which also disappointed me). I'm from exactly the same era. I was 18 for most of 1983, my name is Susan. I didn't really connect on any deeper level to any of the 80s relevance or references.

Merlin was my favorite character. He was kind of quirky.